There is no admission that the background art disclosed in this section legally constitutes prior art.
Brachytherapy, or radiotherapy, is a minimally invasive treatment where radioactive sources, often called seeds, are placed directly in and/or around the tumor site such that a prescribed radiation dose to the defined treatment area.
Hyperthermia, when used in addition to brachytherapy, can have a several folds enhancement in the treatment of certain cancer types. One shortcoming, however, is that such radioactive seeds need to be removed from the patient before being exchanged for the ferromagnetic seeds.
Often, in brachytherapy, the dose of radiation required to give 50% tumor control (with 125I alone) is about 42 Gy. However, only 9.5 Gy may required to reach the same tumor control (with concurrent 125I and ferromagnetic hyperthermia) giving a thermal enhancement ratio of 4.4. Furthermore, it has been shown that 29.4 Gy is required to give the 50% tumor control (with I-125 and sequential ferromagnetic hyperthermia) giving a thermal enhancement ratio of 1.4. As can be seen, the concurrent treatments between the two modalities are more than three times more effective than a single treatment modality.
There have been different methods used to deliver such treatments. In one method, a flat plate-style device is used for the delivery of brachytherapy and hyperthermia separately. The plate-style devices are manufactured to contain pathways for radioactive seed trains and non-radioactive ferromagnetic seeds.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved and more efficient and effective system for the delivery of interstitial thermobrachytherapy in the treatment of cancer.